Toughie No 3693 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
We have a very entertaining puzzle from Hudson today, and whilst there are a few slight obscurities, these are not at the extreme end of the scale in Crosswordland. It did take me a fair while to get into the swing, which I’m blaming on an unusual excursion into solving outdoors, but once I got a couple of handles, it all went in fairly smoothly. We have a few footballing/sporting references, plenty of geography and a couple of Addams family references, but nothing that really amounts to a theme that I can see. There is a whole bunch of clues that would get podium places in any normal week, notably 1d, 8d, 10a, 14d, 19d and 27a, but I’m giving my prize today to 23a. Thank you, Hudson, for a top-notch puzzle.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Superstar singer Celine rather dim, as it turns out (7,8)
MARLENE DIETRICH An anagram (as it turns out) of “Celine rather dim”
9a An occasional player, daughter more skilful potting black (7)
DABBLER Take the usual letter indicating “Daughter” then add a synonym of “more skilful” into which is inserted the letter indicating “black”
10a Best to leave triceratops running all over the place (7)
ERRATIC An anagram (running) of the letters that remain after removal (to leave) of a four-letter word meaning “Best” from “triceratops”
11a I’m formally visiting part of Asia, a majority Muslim land (9)
INDONESIA Insert the impersonal pronoun equivalent of “I’m” including the abbreviation of the verb portion (How eg Royals are often said to refer to themselves, hence the “formal” aspect) into (visiting) a large country in Asia
12a Bowls over exhausted, covered by broadcaster from the east (5)
YORKS Remove the inner letters (exhausted) of “over” an insert the remainder into (covered by) a reversal (from the east in ac Across clue) of a major satellite broadcaster, the solution being one of the ways a bowler in cricket can hit the stumps using a well-pitched-up delivery.
13a Coffee bar, laid back, in traffic-free Caribbean island (7)
ARABICA Reverse (laid back) “bar” and insert that into (in) what remains of a major Caribbean island, after removal of a three-letter term used to describe traffic congestion.
15a RAF personnel broadcast war cries endlessly (7)
AIRCREW An anagram of “war cries” lacking the final letter of “cries” (endlessly)
17a Most sore area, source of infection in thorax (7)
ACHIEST The usual abbreviation for “area” followed by a synonym of “thorax” into which the initial letter of (source of) “infection” is inserted
19a Rhetorical device T S Eliot exploited (7)
LITOTES An anagram (exploited) of “T S Eliot”. Not a bad clue, really.
21a Jeer at loud yobbo (5)
FLOUT The musical abbreviation for “loud” followed by a synonym of “yobbo”. Not the most obvious synonym of “jeer” to me, but perfectly legitimate
23a Fed up hanging around in Paris station’s old toilet (9)
GARDEROBE A synonym of “Fed up” is reversed (hanging around) and inserted into the word for “station” as it would be called in Paris
25a Brother discovered guns in port (7)
BRISTOL A two-letter abbreviation for “Brother” is followed by types of (hand) guns from which the first and last letters are removed (discovered)
26a RLS character’s unfinished diatribe, the source of an outpouring in the street (7)
HYDRANT A charade of a famous character in a Robert Louis Stevenson novel from which the final letter is removed (unfinished) and a synonym of “diatribe”
27a One pressed for oil governs in empire that’s in disorder (7,8)
EVENING PRIMROSE An anagram (that’s in disorder) of “governs in empire”
Down Clues
1d Crazy time after necking island wine that’s quite potent (7)
MADEIRA A charade of synonyms of “Crazy” and “time” into which the letter indication “island” is inserted.
2d Fanatical bishop detained by police operation (5)
RABID The letter indicating “bishop” is inserted into a type of “police operation” involving unannounced, forced entry onto premises
3d Starts to encourage good lad, soldier, popular base climber (9)
EGLANTINE A charade of the initial letters of (starts to) “encourage”, “good” and “lad”; an insect “soldier”, a two-letter synonym of “popular” and a mathematical “base”
4d A touch of froideur as I approach huge land mass (7)
EURASIA The solution is lurking in (a touch of) “froideur as I approach”
5d Japanese art Nick put up in furniture store (7)
IKEBANA A synonym of “Nick” is reversed (“put up” in a Down clue) and inserted into a well-known Swedish furniture store
6d Delay attempt to cross a river (5)
TARRY Take a synonym of “attempt” and insert (to cross) “a” from the clue and the usual letter indicating “river”
7d Translate sign on sandwich shop south of Bury (9)
INTERPRET A synonym of “bury” as a verb (ignore the capitalisation) followed by (“south of” in a Down clue) a truncated name for a well-known “sandwich shop” chain
8d Blade kicks ace debutant for Wednesday (7)
HACKSAW A synonym of “kicks” (in eg an uncultured sporting sense) followed by the letter indicating “ace” and the initial letter of (debutant for) “Wednesday”
14d Love goddess received hairstyle colouring before tea (9)
APHRODITE A charade of homophones (received) of a (tightly-curled) “hairstyle” and “colouring” preceding (before) one of “tea”
16d Rubbish side brings in wingers from relegated City (9)
ROTTERDAM A three-letter synonym of “Rubbish” followed by a synonym of “side” in the sporting sense, surrounding (brings in) the outer letters of (wingers from) “relegated”
17d Pleasant introduction to amusing, fine tale (7)
AFFABLE A charade of the initial letter of (introduction to) “amusing”, the abbreviation for “fine” and a synonym of “tale”
18d Join the group after dropping new language (7)
TAGALOG A (3,5) expression meaning “join the group” (or casually travel with) from which the letter indicating “new” is removed (after dropping), when combined into a single word, gives an Asian language
19d Cross family butler filmed very naked (7)
LURCHER The butler from a comedy-horror TV series and a couple of films is followed by the internal letters (naked) of “very”
20d Terrorist agents respect regional borders (7)
SPECTRE The solution is lurking (borders) within “respect regional”
22d African boy king is getting upset (5)
TUTSI A charade of an Egyptian Pharaoh (in abbreviated form) followed by a reversal (getting upset) of “is” from the clue
24d Regularly tout Bangkok, an area popular with tourists (5)
OTAGO The solution is found by taking the even-numbered letters (Regularly) of “tout Bangkok”. Not a clue that should cause 2Kiwis any issues, I expect
An enjoyable diversion whilst the mercury made its march North. My general knowledge required a bit of e-assistance but all fairly clued. My runaway favourite was 13a, promoted once the “traffic-free” penny dropped.
Thanks to Hudson & Whybird.
An enjoyable crossword but I have never heard of 23a or 18d and 19a was a new word for me. Likewise, I had not heard of 24d but the clue gave all the instructions as the clue for 5d did. However, with the latter, it took me a while to think of the furniture store. My COTT is the Eastern broadcaster at 12a.
Thank you, Hudson for the challenge. Thank you, Whybird for the hints and music.
A slight step up in difficulty compared with recent Tuesday toughies, I’m surprised our blogger rated it as only one star for difficulty. Clever and amusing, with a couple of words new to me thrown in.
I liked the traffic-free island in 13a, the sandwich shop south of Bury in 7d, the Steel City Derby depiction at 8d and the family butler who’d pop up to say “You rang?” in 19d.
My thanks to Hudson and Whybird.
It would have gone up a notch for difficulty if the “obscurities” hadn’t landed in areas of not-too-buried memory for me!
Another cracking puzzle from Hudson – thanks to him and to Whybird for the hints (the hint for 19a is brilliant!).
Top clues for me were 23a, 18d and 19d.
My best Toughie yet with my only need being to identify the 18d language from the BRB and pluck 19a from the deeper recesses of my memory for a complete fill. Having said that, it was a slow start with only 1 of the across clues solved on 1st pass, but 3,4,5 and 6d were read and writes which opened the door.
Everything perfectly parsed with great satisfaction and plenty of ticks. Loved the misdirection for 1a and the homophobic love goddess at 14, but my favourite was the old loo at 23a.
Many thanks to Hudson and Whybird
2*/4*
Should read homophonic and not homophobic – damn auto correct!
I liked the first version. It’s given me an idea for a Woke Spy Thriller – The [goddess] Cancellation. Coming soon to an airport lounge near you…
Good fun to start the Toughie week from Hudson – **/****
Candidates for favourite – 9a, 12a, 7d, 14d, and 17d – and the winner is the ‘charade of homophones’ (Whybird’s term) in 14d.
Thanks to Hudson and Whybird especially for the Whispering Giant in the hint for 25a.
Another splendid crossword from Hudson. Following the current trend, it was more of a backpager than a Toughie, and once again, the clue with a second page all to itself was easily solved without having to write it in the first page and then think about it
Thanks very much to Hudson for the fun and Whybird for the blog. My favourite clue, topping quite a long list of candidates, was 19d
Just bogged down in the south east, with lots of new words ( for me) otherwise a super Hudson puzzle .8, 12 and 19 podium, in any order . Thanks to all .
Very enjoyable indeed from one of my favourite setters – accessible but certainly not without challenge. 18d was a new word for me and I had to rely on my vague memories of O-level Eng Lit for 3d (it was pastoral according to Keats as I recall). Too many favourites to list but I liked the RLS character at 26a (my LOI) and the compound homophone at 14d was excellent. Thanks very much to Hudson and Whybird.
First 75% of this went in early but ground to a halt in the SE corner but finally got there. Don’t help that I was insisting that 26a must end in drain!
New words for me were 3d, 5d and 19a but all clued well. Although I was trying to use a synonym of a sailor in the 5d shop – I think the heat is getting to my brain.
The two long anagrams went in first I thought they were lovely ☺️
I think my clue of the day is 9a. Lovely word and makes me think of dabbling ducks.
18d was easy as I have spent time living in the ME and there are a great many Filipinos there.
I cannot parse 15a even though the answer is obvious.
Finally in Conclusion to my essay I checked my answer to 12a with mr SC (as he is a cricket fan) he had never seen it spelt that way. Unless the answer is nothing to do with cricket ??
Super puzzle, made slightly more testing than it needed to be by having started in the South.
Too many excellent clues to select just a few for the podium, but I do agree with Gazza – the hint for 19a is superb, and if such an award existed, it is a candidate for Hint Of The Year.
Many thanks to Hudson and Whybird
I thought this was excellent. It was nicely challenging and great fun from start to finish with a sea of ticks on my page.
14d was my favourite and a special mention for 12a.
Many thanks to Hudson and to Whybird.
I agree with RD in 12 above! Thanks to Hudson and Whybird.
A clever, fun puzzle – not a write in but not too tough- just the job for a Tuesday. My faves were 10a, 14d and 19d. 8d was neatly done but is it fair to kick em when they’re down?
Thanks to Hudson & Whybird.